Friday, July 10, 2009

Today's D&D podcast had a few Divine Power teasers. Here's what caught my attention.

Regarding clerics, the new build is called the Shielding Cleric, and will be focused on granting bonuses to your teammates. In addition, there will be an option to swap out the Turn Undead feature for a power called Healer's Mercy. The change from a very situational power to a healing-oriented one looks like a great boost for all clerics, as long as it isn't as terrible as Divine Fortune...

As for paladins, we finally know what Divine Sanction is about (as I had been intrigued by the subject since the name came up in the feat preview). As we suspected, it is a marking mechanic related to Divine Challenge. But, rather than a replacement or a rules upgrade (as had also been speculated), Divine Sanction is the version of DC you can get as an special effect of powers or feats. It still marks and deals some radiant damage as punishment, but the length of the effect is specified by its source, and there is no engagement clause. Hopefully this will alleviate the paladin's problems defending against groups of enemies.

There weren't many news for avengers and invokers, though. They talked about the already known, new avenger build: The Commanding Avenger, or something like that. Its class feature is called Censure of Unity. Like the name suggests, this one will emphasize a leader secondary role, playing better with the rest of your party than previous avengers. As someone joked on a forum: 'Avengers assemble!'. And they talked about the malediction invoker, previewed on the D&D site - nothing new here.